Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a gas pre-heat ring for a substrate processing chamber.
Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor substrate processing throughput is a measure of the number of substrates that can be processed during a given time period. The higher a manufacturer's substrate throughput, the less costly it is for the manufacturer to produce a single substrate; thus allowing the manufacturer to be more competitive in the market place.
Some film deposition processes use a cycle of material deposition followed by a cycle of etching the deposited material. This cyclical process can be repeated several times to dozens of times per substrate, depending on the desired film thickness. Thus, the more quickly the manufacturer is able to transition from the deposition phase to the etch phase, and vice versa, the higher the substrate throughput that can be achieved. However, a manufacturer cannot simply increase the deposition or etch process gas flow rates to the chamber. An increased gas flow rate can result in turbulent gas flow or concentration dilution of precursor gas, which can result in non-uniform film deposition on a substrate surface.
Therefore, there is a need for a processing apparatus having improved control of flow characteristics of a process gas.